Thousands Protest Against Babis And Communists

Prague, June 5 (CTK) – Thousands of people protested against the planned coalition government of the ANO movement and the Social Democrats (CSSD) relying on Communist (KSCM) support in Prague tonight, one day before the second appointment of ANO leader Andrej Babis as Czech prime minister.

Hundreds of people gathered in other Czech cities to show their opposition to Babis and the Communists (KSCM).

The protesters carried banners criticising Babis’s alleged collaboration with the former communist-era secret police StB and his criminal prosecution over drawing an EU subsidy for the Capi hnizdo countryside recreation and conference centre.

“This is a protest against the wilful actions of Babis, (President Milos) Zeman and the Communists, one of the speakers at the Prague event said.

Unsuccessful presidential candidates Marek Hilser and Pavel Fischer were among the speakers. Representatives of centre-right opposition parties also attended the gathering.

“I perceive it as a meeting of politicians who failed in the general and presidential election,” iDnes.cz news server quoted Babis as saying.

The event was organised by the Million Moments for Democracy activist project that gathered over 254,000 signatures under its petition which wants Babis to leave the post of prime minister.

About one thousand people gathered in a central square in the city of Brno to tell that Babis harms the country.

Organiser of the protest in Pardubice, Ondrej Muller, said it was bad that a former StB collaborator is the prime minister and that the Communists will return to power after 30 years.

Along with the ministers of his cabinet, Babis today visited the South Bohemian centre, Ceske Budejovice. A hundred of his opponents chanted slogans against him outside a house in which he had a discussion with the locals.

In Olomouc, people condemned the Communist plan to impose a tax on the financial compensation that Czech churches have been receiving from the state for their real estate that had been nationalised and was not returned to them.

In Ostrava, speakers called on people to contribute to the creation of the political programmes of parties which they liked and take part in elections.

In Liberec, the protesters said “no” to Zeman, calling him a president who moves the country eastwards.

On Wednesday, Zeman will appoint Babis as prime minister again.

Babis has been prime minister since December 2017, but his ANO minority cabinet lost the confidence vote in the Chamber of Deputies in January. Though the current cabinet resigned, it keeps ruling the country pending the formation of a new government.

The CSSD members are voting on whether to join the government or not. The result of the CSSD referendum is to be known on June 15. If all went went, the Chamber of Deputies could take a confidence vote in his second cabinet by July 11, Babis said.